After the rain and two days of drying out, the temperature is up to 48 F and the light across the Sound and Lake Union is touching to see. The bus ride downtown on Interstate Five is a thrill: the best view of Lake Union -West or East from the bridge- and fascinating fellow commuters. The Seattle Art Museum is closing out its Intimate Impressionism exhibit from the National Gallery today. Lots of us came and stood in line to get a ticket and a last look.

The exhibit was a wonderful size. Five rooms and multiple paintings of most artists.  The surprises were the last two rooms of Pierre Bonnard and Edouard Vuillard. Here color and space spoke differently. Bonnard was more landscapes, exteriors with selected colors and surprising precision. Vuillard’s colors were mute. The interiors created a sense of excitement that then demanded repression. Coming from the previous room with a powerful Gauguin self-portrait, a delicate Toulouse-Lautrec head, and a mesmerizing and delicately colored Van Gogh farm scene, Vuillard may have been difficult to embrace.

The initial rooms provided a sizeable set of outdoor scenes from both Alfred Sisley and Eugene Boudin. These were even more exciting when viewed after Bonnard and Vuillard had played with one’s color receptors. Yes, some of us went the wrong way, but everyone else was concentrating too much to notice.

Leaving the SAM at twilight encourages an interpretation of the cityscape that makes one wish for one’s camera. Sunday night downtown. Gratitude for artists who let us see and museums that keep the delicate enterprise ongoing.

January 11, 2016

Glad I was there.